Kyung Ho Song

April 10, 2012

Kyung Ho Song (HANDOUT)

U.S. authorities have located international fugitive Kyung Ho Song in his native South Korea, more than a decade after he fled Cook County to avoid being tried for drunken driving and reckless homicide in an accident that killed a 43-year-old single mother.

The search for Song was reactivated last spring after the Tribune contacted prosecutors and police about the dormant case. Even though U.S. authorities discovered Song's location in December, they have yet to formally request help from South Korean officials, and it is not clear when or if Song might be extradited to Illinois.

Authorities had accused Song of being intoxicated in 1996 when he rear-ended three people who were pushing a disabled station wagon to an emergency exit on Lake Street near Route 59 in Bartlett. The violent collision killed Sonia Naranjo and seriously injured another person.

Song, now 73, never became a U.S. citizen but lived in America for 15 years while owning a strip mall, shoe stores and a large Schaumburg home. A Cook County judge allowed him to post bond of only $2,500. Within days, Song began liquidating his assets, transferring property worth more than $1 million to his wife. With the same attorney's help, Song and his wife divorced — on paper, at least. Then, as Song's 1998 trial date neared, he boarded a flight to his native South Korea, where he has remained.

The Tribune and a colleague with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists located Song independently of authorities. In interviews, Song spoke little of the victim in the crash but bemoaned how his life had unraveled since he became a fugitive. "I am such an unlucky guy," Song said.

Brenda Molina, the daughter of Song's alleged victim, said she was stunned that Song could be found by reporters and outraged that authorities had waited so long to act. "If you could do something now, something could have been done years ago. Oh my God, it's been hard," Molina said.